Reblogged from BioUptime:

Almost 10 R&D years later in a convergence area between several IT disciplines (e.g. biometrics, application performance monitoring, event correlation and analysis), Optimum Biometric Labs packages and releases its know-how and experience in this Best Practices in Biometrics Performance Monitoring Programs.

This Best Practices is concerned with the use of standards, methods, processes, frameworks, and IT tools to support end-users’ and businesses’ expectations associated with Reliability,Availability, Maintainability, and Performance of biometric-based verification and identification systems and applications.

Biometrics Performance Monitoring (BPM) is using real-time data to detect, diagnose,report, and recover issues, or potential issues, in order to ensure that end-customers’ business goals and requirements are met or exceeded.

“We want to celebrate our 10 years progress in Biometrics Performance Monitoring by sharing our know-how with the biometric industry and the end-user community. I think the time is finally right to raise the awareness and bring focus in this important (but until now unclear) area because customers in the market for biometrics should be demanding higher quality of biometrics systems, applications, and services (in terms of Reliability, Availability, Maintainability, and Performance) while keeping the operational costs (such as downtime, maintenance, malfunctions) at a minimum.”, says Babak Goudarzi Pour co-author of this work, CEO and a BPM Evangelist at Optimum Biometric Labs.

Dedicated Web Portal

For the purpose of world-wide dissemination of and collaboration in this Best Practices, Optimum Biometric Labs has launched a dedicated web portal where the Best Practices document and a number of useful supporting material can be found: www.BiometricsPerformanceMonitoring.Org

Creating a new product category

With introduction of this Best Practices, Optimum Biometrics Labs wants to formally create a new category of products called Biometrics Performance Monitoring (BPM) tools. “We haven’t invented the concept, but we have developed it along with the first specialized, stand-alone, and off-the-shelf software tool in the market for managing the concept (see BioUptime)”, says Babak Goudarzi Pour.

He further emphasizes: ”We greatly welcome competition and collaboration to expand this opportunity and discipline. In the market place any given biometric deployment is in fact mission critical when it needs to perform its task for its users and business owner; whether that installation is an Automated Border Control system or a biometric school lunch system”.

New On-Site Course, Book yours at BCC 2011

In conjunction with this release the company now offers this Best Practices as an on-site short course (starting from October 31) which will be brought to customer’s workplace or any preferred location. That this course is on-site has many attractive advantages:

• Cost (and time) savings by eliminating participant (e.g. employees) travel expenses
• Convenient location access and time flexibility to fit employees’ schedule
• Option to have room for a greater number of participants
• Allow for open discussions among participants (e.g. employees)

For interested companies and organizations, there are two simple ways to book this lecture:

1. By meeting us at BCC 2011 in Tampa, FL (September 27-29), we are at Booth # 211 with our partner AFIS and Biometrics Consulting Inc. Babak will go around to meet with vendors and to share a ticket with QR-code for easy access to the lecture’s information page and for registering early interest from smart phones and tablets.
2. By contacting Babak Goudarzi Pour: Phone (USA): +1 714 609 4815, Phone (Sweden and Europe): +46 707 404 623, Skype: random_precision

About Optimum Biometric Labs: Founded in 2003 in Sweden, Optimum Biometric Labs develops, markets, and sells BioUptime which is a monitoring software for supervising infrastructure reliability, availability, maintainability, and performance. BioUptime monitors critical hardware and software elements and subsystem components such as biometric capture devices, applications, services, usage, and more. The product’s key benefits enable customers to 1) measure, meet and exceed service level agreements 2) reduce maintenance and operational costs, 3) maximize operational performance, reliability, and availability. Optimum Biometric Labs also specializes in biometrics and BioUptime-related professional services.

• Presenting reference use cases about applying Biometrics Performance Monitoring in diverse biometrics applications
• Issues in real-world pilots or permanent deployments that could be solved or prevented by Biometrics Performance Monitoring
• Return on Investment (ROI) calculations and analysis on Biometrics Performance Monitoring solutions and customer success stories

Overview

Customers in the market for biometrics should be demanding higher quality of biometrics systems, applications, and services (in terms of Reliability, Availability, Maintainability, and Performance) while keeping the operational costs (such as downtime, maintenance, malfunctions) at a minimum.

After almost 10 R&D years in a convergence area between several IT disciplines (e.g. biometrics, application performance monitoring, event correlation and analysis), Optimum Biometric Labs has packaged and released its know-how and experience in this Best Practices in Biometrics Performance Monitoring Programs. This course looks at the use of definitions, standards, methods, processes, and IT tools to support end-users’ and businesses’ real-world expectations associated with Reliability, Availability, Maintainability, and Performance of biometric-based verification and identification systems and applications.

Course Schedule
Part one:

• What is Biometrics Performance Monitoring?
• Why is Biometrics Performance Monitoring needed?
• Informative standards and their relevance
• Three distinct goals of Biometrics Performance Monitoring
• Five steps towards implementing and adopting a successful Biometrics Performance Monitoring (BPM) program
• What is Service Level Agreement (SLA) and why is it important? what does and should it content?
• How to estimate biometrics operational costs

Part two:

• Market overview
• Functions of general Biometrics Performance Monitoring (BPM) tool
• Properties of general Biometrics Performance Monitoring (BPM) tool. How to evaluate IT tools for Biometrics Performance Monitoring?
• Relationship between units/elements, events, alerts, and metrics
• Interface between the biometric system and the Biometrics Performance Monitoring (BPM) tool, Overview of BPM Application Programming Interface (API)
• What are the right questions to be asked in a BPM program? and their answers
• Case study of a DHS-sponsored project involving 6 different vendors’ products
• Questions/discussions

For which type of organizations: Biometrics end-customers, Maintenance & support centers, Prime contractors and system integrators, Biometric vendors, Standardization bodies, Biometric fora and associations

For who: CIO, CSO, CTO, Product Manager, Sales Manager, IT / System Administrator, Operations and Support staff, System Architect, Biometric System Developer

Dates and time: you choose the date and time (starting from October 31, 2011)

Duration: Circa 2 hours

Location: This is an on-site course, we bring this course to your workplace, i.e. your preferred location (please note that for locations outside of the United States travel expense of the Lecturer will be invoiced upon prior agreement). That this course is on-site has many attractive advantages:

• Cost (and time) savings by eliminating participant (e.g. employees) travel expenses
• Convenient location access and time flexibility to fit employees’ schedule
• Option to have room for a greater number of participants
• Allow for open discussions among participants (e.g. employees)

Number of participants/attendees: unlimited

Course material: Lecture notes in digital format will be distributed in advance. These notes are for participants only and are not for sale.

Fee: $1995

Coordinator and Lecturer: Babak Goudarzi Pour, Co-founder, CEO & BPM Evangelist at Optimum Biometric Labs

Book your on-site course: Best Practices in Biometrics Performance Monitoring Programs

Reference case snapshot

Project: Biometric Identification on the Move (BIMS)
Project leader: AFIS and Biometrics Consulting Inc. (Newport Beach, CA)
Project Sponsor: Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
Sponsor of BPM tool and know-how: Optimum Biometric Labs with BioUptime
Type of application: Automated Border Control (ABC) system, Enrollment module
5 units/elements monitored:

• GreenBit optical fingerprint sensor (DactyScan84)
• BIMS Enrollment Software
• IriTech IriTerminal MD-300 Iris camera
• Canon EOS 50D Digital SLR camera 15.1MP
• Symbol LS1203 General Purpose Bar Code Scanner

Frequency of monitoring: between 10 seconds to 600 seconds, based on individual units/elements
Total no. of specific Event types: more than 108

BioUptime has added value in these areas

1. Organization information:
• organization name, type, address, contact persons, alert setting, list of installations, installation type, alert setting for individual installations
2. Installation information:
• installation name, installation type, address, location, time zone, user who created it, and the date it was created, alert setting, alert subscribers, list of units/elements and their types, alert setting for individual units/elements
3. Unit information:
• Consisting of three main sections: Unit Information, Alert Setting, and Latest Event
1. Unit Information: The Unit Information contains the useful details: Unit name, Unit type, Location, Installation and organization it belongs to, Comment, Serial number, and frequency of monitoring (poll interval)
2. Alert Setting and alert subscribers
3. Unit’s last event and its corresponding data field and time stamp

Collecting and archiving more than 108 events and transactions for analysis of trends, behaviour and abnormalities.

Computing and presenting performance-related variables (metrics and stats):

• Number of enrollees
• Total background database
• Total number of samples
• Transaction duration (ISO/IEC FCD 19795-6, see Annex E)
• Comparison score (ISO/IEC FCD 19795-6, see Annex E)
• Image quality score (ISO/IEC FCD 19795-6, see Annex E)
• Failure to enroll rate (FTE)
• Failure to acquire rate (FTA)

Remote performance and availability (health status) monitoring on the following levels:

• Capture device
• Application/service components:

• Database Service
• Enrollment
• Template generating app
• Data management service
• System components such as:

• Enrollment server
• Database server

Displaying and sending (via email) alerts and diagnosis information

Accessing the above features via a web-based UI